Dragging Me Down
by Screaming Faeries
Summary: When Tom sees something he wants, he gets it; and that includes a pretty young thing bouncing around her back garden. Mythology!AU, present for Wisdom *hearts* Warning for lemony content.
1. The Fragrant Abduction

**A.N:** I've written this entirely and in honour of my good friend Wisdom, aka pureblcods. I hope you like this :)

 **Challenges:  
** Gringotts Prompt Bank: Mythology!AU  
Restriction: No using the word 'said'  
Acrostic-y Challenge (Chapter 6): T - Tom Riddle; Towel ; The Burrow

 **Word Count:** 499

* * *

 **i  
** **The Fragrant Abduction  
** _I_ _'m wearing the invisible crown; you just can't see it yet._

The summer is here and she's overjoyed. The bright sun beams down, warming her skin like molten lava. She wants to tan; wants to feel the summer sky inject it's sweet venom into her veins.

Ginevra Weasley dances in the back garden of the Burrow, swinging the towels that she's supposed to be hanging over her head. She pegs them up neatly, then swirls in and out of the washing lines, her white skirts swishing around her ankles. She's wearing her Saturday clothes, an ivory sundress with spaghetti straps, cascading long and lovely down her slim legs. It's made from thin linen material, perfect for the warm weather.

She treads carefully as she approaches her mother's flowerbed. Molly Weasley has a penchant for gardening, and she has previously ensured that all of her children know to treat the flowers with the utmost care. Ginny smiles, enjoying the sight of the blue-grey hydrangeas in bloom, breathing in the fresh, fragrant smell of the freesias, and reaching out to delicately stroke the petal of one large, lilac rose.

It's the most beautiful day. A day that is about to be beautifully ruined.

oOo

Tom Riddle _feels_ Ginny before he sees her.

She feels like what he imagines the clouds in the sky feel like; soft and light and fluffy. She glows like the brightest part of the sun on the longest summer day, shining down on his gloomy corner of hell with her ethereal light.

He has never seen someone so wonderfully pure and dainty and innocent; never known anyone to be born of the daytime and the floral breeze. He doesn't know who she is, but he knows he has to have her.

He has to take her for his own.

The ground shudders and rumbles, and Tom raises his arms to rise. Below his feet, the floor is pushed higher and higher by Tom's unspoken spell, raising him to the surface world. Earth and dirt crumbles around him, but he is left untouched by the filth that surrounds him.

The flowerbed collapses as he breaks through the surface of the garden. Before his eyes, Ginny retreats, the look of summery joy falling from her face. Shock registers on her features, her honey-brown eyes widening in horror and her small pink mouth falling open. Her change in expression only makes Tom want her more.

Before anyone can witness what is happening, Tom grasps Ginny around her narrow waist, and pulls her down into the Underworld.


	2. Pygmalion's Bride

**Challenges:  
** It's So Wrong...Challenge: Smut (Lemons, Limes, etc)

 **Word Count:** 536

* * *

 **ii  
** **Pygmalion's Bride  
** _He loves me violently all through the night._

Innocence is something that doesn't need to be kept. A passing fancy; a promise kept as long as possible—but like everything, virtue comes with a shelf life. No one wishes for a mature woman with her innocence intact, just as no one desires an adolescent without hers.

Tom drags Ginny, kicking and screaming, to a bed chamber clothed from the hottest fires of the Nether. As they advance closer, the heat melts through her pores, her dress burning to an ebony crisp. It crumbles from her person and leaves her standing nervously, bare as the day she was born.

He drinks her in hungrily, admiring the bronze tone to her skin. Everyone who dwells in the Underworld alongside him is cold and pale, but Ginny reminds him of the summer that he remembers from his childhood, before he was doomed to spend his life ruling over Hell.

She knows what's going to happen, and fear strikes through to her very core. Anxiety churns in the pit of her stomach, and out of sheer terror, Ginny resolves to lie utterly still. She doesn't want him to know she is afraid of the pain that he will inflict upon her.

Tom throws her onto her back and crawls along the expanse of her lithe body. She stares into the sky, watching rolling black clouds thundering overhead, as he reaches her face and kisses her stone-cold lips. He frowns; he wants her warmth and energy. He wants to feel the tropics when he touches Ginny, not a Grecian statue sculpted from ivory.

His fingers become claws, raking crimson welts into her body. He thumbs her skin, leaving smudgy, purple hearts upon her body, little clues of his presence. His voice was gravelly and hoarse, whispering terrible things into her ear.

When he makes that final contact with her; his mid-section grinding into hers as he takes her purity in one smooth, slow motion, Ginny bites her lip and prays that she won't release a sound. He waits, eagerly anticipating a delectable echo to slip from her mouth, but none comes. He swiftly changes his advances, moving slower and slower.

Ginny fancies she sees fireworks as she stares over Tom's shoulder into the sky. His mouth has dropped to her neck, leaving breathy messages in the shell of her ear and trails of wet kisses along her collarbone. She knows it's wrong, but there's something pleasurable in the way gooseflesh rises to her skin.

She tries to stay still and stature, but the pain in her middle is beginning to subside. She knows there's blood between her thighs, but it suddenly doesn't bother her anymore.

So, she changes tack. She grows as warm as she can be, lets her body become honey, pliable, melting around him like candle wax. She wraps her arms around him tightly, turning her face away from the hellish darkness above, and lets her wet, red cry echo into the night.


	3. The Winter of her Discontent

**Challenges:  
** The Restriction Challenge: No references to a Hogwarts house

 **Word Count:** 809

* * *

 **iii  
** **The Winter of her Discontent  
** _When you go away I am sad and grey; you are the sunshine that brightens up my day._

Molly comes down the garden to collect Ginny late in the day.

The first thing she notices is the empty hole in the ground where her flowerbed used to be. Nothing remains on the bed of soil except a single greying, flaky hydrangea petal. Molly bends down, feeling angry that her beautiful garden has been ruined. She whips around to look for her daughter, ready to chastise her for being so careless.

But Ginny isn't around, and she's nowhere to be seen.

Molly immediately panics. Ginny isn't the type to leave home often, and if she ever does, she always tells her mother where she will be. She puts her fingers in her mouth and whistles loudly into the hedges that surround her garden, and almost immediately, a small garden gnome scurries out of the bushes, grimacing rudely at Molly.

"Did you see where Ginny went to?" Molly asks, trying to keep her voice casual. The gnome doesn't believe her act for a second, she can tell by the crude grin he offers her.

"Oh yes, I saw her alright. Saw her clearly," he tells her proudly, his beetle-black eyes glittering.

"Could you tell me where she went?"

"What's it worth?"

Molly purses her lips angrily. She isn't in the business of making deals with garden gnomes. Before the critter can react, Molly reaches forwards and seizes the gnome by the ankles, turning him upside down. "I tried to be nice to you!" she yells, "now you're going to tell me where she went!"

"Alright, alright!" the gnome shrieks, and Molly slowly lowers him back to the ground. He grumbles briefly and brushes his grubby dungarees down. "The ground over there opened up," he mutters, gesturing with his left hand towards the space that used to contain Molly's flowers. "A man came out of nowhere and snatched her up, took her down into the earth with him."

"Into the... _earth_?" Molly looked horrified.

She has heard stories of the man who was banished to live out his days in the depths of Hell—but that was just what they were; stories. Molly knows that masses of followers strut around committing murders and crimes that they suppose are in His honour, but Molly always assumed it was just another religious organisation. The thought that the Death Eaters could really be answering to someone who is bigger than anything Molly could ever perceive just seems utterly outrageous.

"I saw it with my own eyes," the gnome continues, looking solemn.

oOo

Molly flies into a fury. Her outlook on life becomes red-tinted and coated with slick, crimson blood. For nine days, she wanders the length and breadth of England, searching with all her might for even the slightest trace of where her daughter could be.

Her magic becomes explosive, dangerous and impulsive. She no longer feels able to control it, and as her emotions dwindle, so does the vegetation around her. Wherever she walks, the grass stops to grow. Wherever she rests her head, the crops and trees and fruit sag and shrivel.

She passes fields of cows and sheep, and they curl up to die in her wake. She flies over orchids, and the fruits of the trees dry and fall to the ground, withered and inedible. Farms that lie ahead of her lose their verdancy, no longer able to support vegetables and food. England is slowly grinding to a halt, all because Molly can't find her daughter.

After nine days and nights, she finally meets someone in a bar in London. He wears a mask over his face to protect his identity, and claims to be someone who works personally with the Dark Lord, but only does so out of honour to his parents. As a supporter, he has the ability to apparate between the realms of the surface world and the one below.

Molly begs with him, pleads with him to bring back Ginny. She knows that she will stop at nothing to retrieve her daughter, and if she is not reunited with her, it will take death to stop her from ruining the earth.

"She's only a girl," she whispers to the masked stranger, tears bubbling in her hazel eyes. "She's practically a child."

She can see in his dark eyes that he feels pity for her.

"I'll find her," he promises, and with a swish of his cloak, he's gone.


	4. Pomegranates

**Challenges:  
** Restriction Challenge: No writing in past tense

 **Word Count:** 749

* * *

 **iv  
** **Pomegranates  
** _He_ _'s crazy, in every single way. Like a hurricane, you have to get out of the way._

"Please, my Lord. Please consider letting her go back to her mother."

"Regulus, you upset me," drawls Tom. He's sitting upon his throne of bones in the heart of his hellish mansion, peeling the skin from a pomegranate. "Why do you wish to _help_ her mother?"

Regulus lowers his mask to the ground, keeping his head bowed. "She is ruining the earth, my Lord. She will stop at nothing."

Tom continues to glower down at Regulus, remaining silent for a moment. As he peels the last remaining shred of the pomegranate skin, an idea strikes him, and it's evident on his face from the outset. "Very well, Regulus," he murmurs, a smirk growing on his placid, chalky features. "You may return to the Weasley woman. Tell her that Ginevra will be released by autumn."

Regulus looks shocked, but he doesn't argue Tom's decision. Before the Dark Lord can change his mind, he rises from his kneeling position and hurries out of sight.

"Ginny," calls Tom, once Regulus is nowhere in sight. He doesn't shout loud, and the mansion is an awfully loud place, but he knows that Ginny will hear. True to form, footsteps can be heard in the hall, and she soon shows herself to him.

The nine days have had their toll on her. She looks tired, weak, and there is contempt in her eyes as she observes Tom. But she is still golden and radiant, her auburn hair contrasting wonderfully with everything dark and bleary around her.

She climbs up to the podium where he sits obediently, and sits down between his legs on the ground. Her eyes fall on the pomegranate in his hand, and he knows that she is hungry. She hasn't touched a single morsel of food since he brought her down into the earth.

"Ginevra," he purrs, his voice dripping, nectar-sweet. "Why don't you eat something?"

"I'm not hungry," she answers solemnly, but her stomach growls in response.

"Oh, that's a shame," he murmurs, beginning to separate the pomegranate into segments. "I was hoping you would eat some of this."

"How can there be fruit in Hell?" she asks quietly, trying to keep her voice dulcet of tone, but Tom registers the craving in her voice.

"There can be anything, anywhere, if you want it enough," he whispers. He allows one hand to drop to the back of her head, where he strokes her hair softly. "Why don't you just..." he moves his other hand towards her mouth, holding a segment of the pomegranate. "Take a bite?"

Ginny closes her eyes and allows her mouth to fall open, and Tom to slip the segment between her lips. She can't help but moan slightly in bliss; whoever thought that fruit could taste so good when it was grown without the sunlight?

oOo

"She can't ever return," Tom laughs cruelly in Regulus' face hours later. "She has eaten fruit of the Netherworld—neither body nor soul can return to the surface."

"But, my Lord," Regulus pleads, looking horrified. "You _said_ —"

"—I lied," Tom interjects, his eyes glittering menacingly.

"But, my Lord," repeats Regulus. "The _earth_ , Molly Weasley...she'll..."

"I don't care," Tom sweeps his hand dismissively. "The surface world isn't my problem."

"My _Lord_ ," presses Regulus. "Can we not come to some kind of arrangement?

oOo

So it came to pass that Ginny could only leave Tom Riddle's side in the summer months. He finally agrees to this arrangement, allowing her to spend six months of the year with Molly, and the other six below the surface with him.

It doesn't make Molly entirely happy. Whilever Ginny isn't beside her, her anger boils and bubbles once again, hotter than Hades. The growth of crops and vegetation becomes almost impossible, and the earth is sworn to live in unhelpful conditions.

Until Ginny returns.


	5. Queen of the Underworld

**Challenges:  
** The Restriction Challenge: No dialogue

 **Word Count:** 174

* * *

 **v  
** **Queen of the Underworld  
** _Love you like I never loved anyone, keep me burning hot like the red, red sun._

As it does, time goes on. The months progress into years, and the years into decades. Ginny realises that without others around, it isn't hard to grow to love Tom. She begins to admire the way he rules the Nether, and in return, she grows colder.

She isn't the Ginny that Tom initially was attracted to. As her time in the Underworld goes on, her once warm heart slowly transforms into a frosty chip of ice. Her skin becomes sallow and pearly, her vibrant hair dulling and hanging in lank clumps. She becomes mean; vicious; cutting.

Through it all, she remains extremely loyal to Tom. No matter who wanders into the Underworld or what sweet nothings they dare to entice her with, her glass, wintry heart stays forever in Tom's hand.

She is Queen of the Underworld, and she won't have it any other way.


End file.
